The Dragon spacecraft is carrying 575 kg of supplies for the space station crew and for experiments being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The space freighter is to spend 22 days attached to the station.

During that time, astronauts will unload cargo and load the craft with 1,210 kg of Earth-bound experiment samples and equipment.

A Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon blasted off from the Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Friday. The docking was initially scheduled for Saturday, but was delayed due to the thruster failure.

Shortly after the launch, the spacecraft experienced a problem with its thruster pods used for orbital manoeuvres, but they were all fixed later and the spacecraft successfully performed a manoeuvre to raise its orbit.